There is no single price. A criminal lawyer in Melbourne can cost anywhere from around $1,500 for a simple guilty plea in the Magistrates’ Court to tens of thousands of dollars, or more, for a contested hearing or a higher court trial. The cost depends on the charge, the court, whether you plead or contest, and the lawyer’s experience.
Yes. You can negotiate legal fees with a criminal lawyer in Victoria. You have the right to request and negotiate both the amount and the billing method, and the law requires legal costs to be fair and reasonable. What is negotiable includes the fee structure, payment arrangements, and what the fee actually covers.
It depends heavily on the court and your plea. A simple guilty plea in the Magistrates’ Court can be over in a matter of weeks, while a contested summary hearing usually takes several months. A serious indictable matter that goes through committal and on to a trial in the County Court can take a year or more from charge to finish. The biggest factors are whether you plead guilty or not guilty, how complex the case is, and how busy the courts are.
An appeal against conviction challenges the finding that you are guilty. An appeal against sentence accepts the guilty finding but argues the penalty is wrong. They are different applications, with different arguments and different risks, and choosing the right one is the first real decision in any appeal.
A trial and a sentencing hearing do two completely different jobs. A trial decides whether you are guilty, with the prosecution having to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt, often before a jury. A sentencing hearing, also called a plea hearing, only happens after guilt is established, by a guilty plea or a guilty verdict, and its job is to decide the penalty. There is no jury at a sentencing hearing, the standard of proof works differently, and it is the stage where your lawyer presents everything in your favour under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).
